How They Really Work

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Scott Badman, Instructor

Fractional Metric Prefixes

milli- means one thousandth, from the Latin word for "thousand" --- not to be confused with one millionth

(The English word "million" comes from the Italian word "millione", as a variation of the same Latin word for thousand, but meaning "a thousand thousands". Strangely enough, the Latin word for "one thousandth was "million". Confusing enough?)

micro- means one millionth, from the Greek word for "small"

nano- means one billionth, from the Greek word for "dwarf"

Integral Metric Prefixes

kilo- means one thousand (1,000), from the Greek word for "thousand" as opposed to "milli-" which is from Latin for "thousand"

mega- means one million (1,000,000) from the Greek word for "great" as opposed to "micro" which is Greek for "small"

giga- means one billion (1,000,000,000), from the Greek word for "giant", as opposed to nano- which is from Greek for "dwarf"

tera- means one trillion (1,000,000,000,000), from the Greek word for "monster"

and we are starting to see:

peta- means one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000), from the Greek word for "five" for the five sets of zeros behind the 1

"Peta-Scale Computing" sign across the street at Blue Waters Building